1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens camera including a driven member which is driven in association with a zooming operation of a photographing optical system. The present invention also relates to a rotation transfer mechanism for transmitting rotation of a rotational ring to an associated member to move the associated member in association with the rotation of the rotational ring.
2. Description of the Related Art
A zoom lens camera (i.e., a camera with a zoom lens) with a zoom viewfinder and/or a zoom flash which is driven in association with a zooming operation of a photographing optical system of the zoom lens, wherein a driving force for driving the zoom viewfinder and/or the zoom flash is obtained from movement of a rotational ring for driving the photographing optical system, is known in the art. In this type of zoom lens camera which is capable of not only moving the photographing optical system in a predetermined zooming range (between wide and telephoto) but also retracting the photographing optical system to a retracted position (accommodation position), the rotational ring and the zoom viewfinder and/or the zoom flash need not to be associated with each other when the photographing optical system is moved in an advancing/retracting range (non-photographing range) between the zooming range and the retracted position (e.g., between wide-angle extremity and the retracted position). Providing an associating mechanism (linkage) for associating the zoom viewfinder and/or the zoom flash with the zooming operation with such an association releasing function tends to increase the size of the associating mechanism. It is difficult to provide the associating mechanism with the association releasing function while keeping the associating mechanism small and compact in size, especially when the range of rotation of the aforementioned rotational ring for driving the photographing optical system in the advancing/retracting range between the zooming range and the retracted position is large. The same problem arises not only in the rotation transfer mechanism of the aforementioned type of zoom lens camera but also in a general rotation transfer mechanism which needs to be capable of releasing the association of a rotational ring with an associated member which moves in association with rotation of the rotational ring.